Gardasil and Presidential Politics

The HPV vaccine is back in the news this week courtesy of Monday’s debate among Republican candidates for president. At issue is Texas Governor Rick Perry’s horrible decision in February 2007 to require sixth grade girls to be administered the controversial Gardasil vaccine against Human Papillomavirus (HPV). He did not wait for the legislature to act. He imposed the requirement via executive order. (Thankfully it was rescinded by both houses of the Texas legislature in May 2007.) Judicial Watch has been a national leader in investigating the Gardasil push.
During the debate, Governor Perry, the current front-runner for the Republican nomination, took sustained fire from his opponents over the issue, especially Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. Politico had the story:

Michele Bachmann accused Rick Perry of using sixth-grade girls as profit engines for a drug company at the CNN/Tea Party Express debate, lacing into the Texas governor for having attempted to mandate the HPV vaccine for young teenagers.
“To have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just wrong,” Bachmann said. “Little girls who have a negative reaction to this potentially dangerous drug don’t get a mulligan.”

Judicial Watch knows quite a bit about the “negative reactions” experienced by girls who have been forced to take Gardasil. Our Gardasil investigation, which began in May 2007, has unearthed shocking incidents of death and illness caused by the vaccine as detailed in “adverse reaction” reports obtained by JW from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There have been literally thousands of cases documented in these reports, which read like a catalog of horrors.
Here are just a few examples from the last batch of reports we uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act one year ago in September 2010. Warning, this information is very graphic:

• A nineteen year old girl with no medical history except occasional cases bronchitis received Gardasil and in 53 days, had “Headache, Nausea, dizziness, chilling, tiredness, shortness of breath, complained of chest plain, severe cramps.” She experienced an Acute Cardiac Arrhythmia. Attempts to resuscitate her resulted in a sternal fracture, but were unsuccessful and the patient died. — V. 356938
• A thirteen year old girl was vaccinated on July 17, 2009. Ten days later, she developed a fever and was treated. However, “the patient did not recover and was admitted to the hospital on [August 8]…She developed dyspnoea and went into coma…she expired [that day] at around 9:00 pm. The cause of death was determined as ‘death due to viral fever.’ … This event occurred after 23 days of receiving first dose of Gardasil.” — V. 380081
• Thirteen days after vaccination, a ten year old girl developed “progressive loss of strength in lower and upper extremities almost totally…Nerve conduction studies [showed Guillain Barre Syndrome].” Case was “considered to be immediately life-threatening.” — V. 339375

One mother of a 13-year-old girl who died 37 days after receiving the vaccination noted in a report: “I first declined getting her the vaccination but her doctor ensured me that it was safe…” After her daughter complained of a severe headache, no feeling in her foot and a tingling feeling in her leg, a doctor’s appointment was set for October 23, 2009. “My daughter never made it to Oct[ober] 23rd, which is also her birthday,” the mother noted. “She passed on Oct[ober] 17th, I found her cold unresponsive in her room at 7am....”
In response to the concerns raised by Judicial Watch, the CDC and other public health authorities have been forced to admit some of the dangers of Gardasil. Importantly, these agencies are now deploying damage control measures in an attempt to minimize the Gardasil related deaths:

As of June 22, 2011 there have been a total 68 VAERS reports of death among those who have received Gardasil®. There were 54 reports among females, 3 were among males, and 11 were reports of unknown gender. Thirty two of the total death reports have been confirmed and 36 remain unconfirmed due to no identifiable patient information in the report such as a name and contact information to confirm the report. A death report is confirmed (verified) after a medical doctor reviews the report and any associated records. In the 32 reports confirmed, there was no unusual pattern or clustering to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine and some reports indicated a cause of death unrelated to vaccination.

Not exactly reassuring, is it?
Now, the question that inevitably follows is this: Why would the government consider mandating the use of a vaccine of questionable effectiveness that has proven to be deadly? Bachmann took this question up during the debate.
The Minnesota congresswoman went even further, accusing Perry of handing out favors to a company, Merck, represented by his former top aide, Mike Toomey.

“There was a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate,” Bachmann said. “The governor’s former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company.”

Governor Perry denied the accusation. But there’s no denying that Merck employed a massive lobbying campaign to force the government to mandate the Gardasil vaccine: “Merck lobbied every opinion leader, women’s group, medical society, politicians, and went directly to the people — it created a sense of panic that says you have to have this vaccine now,” Dr. Diane Harper told The New York Times. (Dr. Harper was the principle investigator on the clinical trials of Gardasil.) “Because Merck was so aggressive, it went too fast.”
Lightning fast. The FDA inexplicably fast-tracked the vaccine as it quickly moved from “newly minted vaccine to must-have injection,” as noted by the Times. Judicial Watch and public pressure put a stop to Merck’s efforts to lobby the government to mandate the vaccine, at least for now. Hopefully, given the attention to Governor Perry’s decision, this vaccine itself will get a second look.
The “grown-ups” in the media suggest that, while it is fair game to raise questions about the reasons behind Perry’s decision to mandate the vaccinations, no one can reasonaby challenge the vaccine itself. Judicial Watch begs to differ. And so did the New England Journal of Medicine:

Policymakers, clinicians, and parents have a keen sense of urgency about HPV vaccination. On one hand, the vaccine has high efficacy against certain HPV types that cause life-threatening disease, and it appears to be safe; delaying vaccination may mean that many women will miss an opportunity for long-lasting protection. On the other hand, a cautious approach may be warranted in light of important unanswered questions about overall vaccine effectiveness, duration of protection, and adverse effects that may emerge over time. HPV vaccination has the potential for profound public health benefit if the most optimistic scenario of effectiveness is realized.

Given all the questions about Gardasil, the best public health policy would be to reevaluate its safety and to prohibit its distribution to minors. At a minimum, governments should rethink any efforts to mandate or promote this vaccine for children. We should end the public health experiment that is the Gardasil vaccination effort.

Much more here.

Yet some will still drink the Cool-Aid!  Imagine that!